michael leibson : thinkingMusic

Students

One-on-One, Long-Distance Lessons in

jazz harmony, classical harmony,
musical analysis and composition

I teach jazz and classical harmony and composition to a small
number of private, long-distance students. Instruction is one-on-one, and
person-to-person – only the means of communication is long-distance. My
students and I use video calling, email, and telephone to create intimate, one-on-one
teacher-student relationships, that are surprisingly superior — in many
ways — to on-site instruction. Because I limit my teaching to a small
number of students, each student receives my complete attention and
individual care.

Benefits of Long-Distance Instruction

Finding the right teacher

Depending on where you live, it may be difficult to find a
teacher who specializes in harmony and composition — or whose teaching
approach addresses your needs, goals and philosophy. Long-distance
instruction answers those needs, by bringing the right teacher to you.

A permanent record of each lesson

Video and telephone lessons can easily be recorded, leaving you with a
permanent record that can be replayed and studied at any time — as frequently as you wish. As text-based files, email
lessons are naturally permanent; because they contain explanations, corrections, and illlustrations that are
specific to your individual studies, they become your own, unique textbook. They chronicle every step
of your progress, and are always available for review and study.

Check out , for samples of student email lessons.

Flexible timetable

With zero travel time and the instant connectivity of current technologies, long-distance lessons
are easily and quickly scheduled. Email lessons are even more flexible, allowing you to study
when the time is right for you — whether that’s first thing in the morning or the middle of the night.

Courses and lessons tailored to your unique needs

Successful teaching respects and addresses the differing
experiences, training, and abilities that each student brings to his or her
studies. I therefore begin each new teaching relationship with an in-depth
‘interview’, that covers the student’s previous training and experience,
explores his or her abilities, and identifies goals. We then discuss the
specific steps necessary to achieve those goals, and plan a course of study
particular to that student. My approach is the antithesis of the kind of
one-size-fits-all instruction one can sometimes find on the internet and
DVDs: not only is each lesson unique to the student, but so is the entire
course of study.

How I Work

Harmony

For all harmony students, I use a combination of exercises
in analysis and composition as a means of first developing awareness and
then building practical skills – but the details of how we proceed depend a
great deal on the skills, experience and requirements of the individual
student.

Classical

For students with sufficient preparatory skills and
experience, I like to use Harmony & Voice Leading, by Aldwell &
Schachter, as a main text, with side-references to other texts as necessary.
Widely used in university-level harmony courses, Harmony & Voice Leading
is difficult, but I’ve found it to be far more thorough and reliable – and
thus much kinder to the student’s long-term progress – than other major
harmony texts currently available.

Google "Harmony & Voice Leading Aldwell Schachter"
to learn more about this text. You can find its table of contents online,
here, at Amazon.com.

For students requiring preparatory training, I use many of
my own materials (which I give, free of charge, to my students) in
combination with any of a number of widely available texts. Should the
student’s experience and aptitude require it, I may also create
courses to address particular weaknesses (eg, a survey of chord progressions
found in the student’s favourite music, followed by their reduction to
root movement, and the harmonic patterns made observable by that
reduction).

For more advanced students, and students interested in
cross-referencing jazz harmony with classical harmony, I generally proceed
from the specific to the general: we might, for instance, analyse a work of
interest (be it from classical, romantic, Impressionist, or jazz
repertoire), locate areas that require specific, in-depth exploration, and
then devise a short- or long-term course of study to address that need.

Jazz

Jazz is both the modern-day heir to the tonal harmony of
classical, romantic and Impressionist traditions, and the master of its own
intensely sophisticated harmonic language. That this language is relatively
new -- and ever-evolving -- naturally means that it is less codified, and
open to a wide and diverse number of theoretical perspectives.

While jazz musicians necessarily focus on chord-scale
relationships, I believe that a solid grounding in harmony – one that spans
both its roots in the classical heritage and its modern evolution -- is also
important. This should include a study of longer-term harmonic relationships
-- and the often very sophisticated techniques at work behind them.

Using actual leadsheets and recordings as a starting point,
I learn how my student conceives of harmony. This helps me trace the
student’s previous training and experience, and identify areas that may need
strengthening. We then discuss various ways of developing those strengths,
and devise appropriate course plans. Those courses may involve texts (e.g.,
Mark Levine’s The Jazz Theory Book), a possible review or tour of
classical harmony (see Classical, above), or consist of chart
analysis and discussion. If my student is already in fine shape, our tools
will typically be the deep analysis of relevant tunes – via both recordings
and leadsheets – followed by compositional exercises that seek to synthesize
the new discoveries.

Word Processing Program (eg, Word, or any Word-compatible program) — so that you can:

create, edit, and respond to email lessons. I normally
write email lessons in Word, which easily accommodates text, hidden
text, expandable font sizes, and images of all types. Students can easily
edit incoming email lessons – to answer questions, correct musical
exercises, and ask further questions – if they, too, have Word, or
an application that accepts Word files (Open Office Writer can read and
create Word files, and is downloadable, for free, here).

Graphics Program — so that you can:

convert large-sized images to smaller formats. Email
lessons can contain quite a few scanned musical illustrations and excerpts –
all in the form of images. To keep the final email size light, it helps to
convert any large-sized images to smaller file-types (eg, .gif, .png).
Graphics programs like Photoshop do this easily.

edit incoming or outgoing image files: for
example, I sometimes use a very simple graphics program – like MS Paint
– to correct or add comments to students’ exercises.

Optional Gear

The following is useful, but not essential:

Music Notation Program (optional) — so that you can:

write your musical exercises and compositions without
having to use music manuscript and scanner. (I actually find it faster and
more convenient to use a pencil, music manuscript and a scanner, but many of
my students do their work via music notation programs or the scoring
features of sequencers/DAWs.) Note: You may still have to convert
your notated score into an image file, in order to export it within an email
lesson.

Screen Capture Program (optional):

Screen capture programs afford one of the fastest and
simplest ways of turning anything on your computer screen into an image – an
image that you can then easily insert into an email lesson. Free screen
capture programs can easily be found on the net.

Digital Audio Recording/Editing Software (optional) — so that you can:

record, edit and email excerpts of specific tunes to be
used for analysis, etc.

Lesson Frequency & Duration

While I’m open to the occasional ad hoc lesson, I prefer to
work with students who are committed to hard work and a very active
inter-relationship. The teacher-student relationship takes time and care,
and I’m most interested in working with students who are keen to use the
benefits of that relationship fully.

I usually spend one to two hours a week on each student’s
lessons, depending on the student’s pace and requirements, and my own
workload. However, each student’s situation is unique, so let’s talk. . .

About Me

I’ve been a professional musician for over forty years, as a
performer (guitar and keyboards), arranger, composer, music consultant, and
music educator.

I’ve been teaching music theory (rudiments, harmony,
analysis and counterpoint), musicianship and composition for over
twenty-five years -- mostly privately, but also at various institutions,
seminars and workshops in Canada. (See
about Michael Leibson, for further details.)

Since the 1980’s, I’ve also worked as a music consultant,
acting as a forensic musicologist and music analyst/transcriber for many
Canadian music publishers. The
Clients and References
pages, at my forensic musicology website, give details on some of the work
I’ve done over the years.

My first loves are composing and thinking about music, and
I do as much of both as I can. I get to think about music with my students,
too, and I hope they also benefit from the exchange.

“I’ve known Michael Leibson for about twenty years, and can
attest, without hesitation, that Michael is one of the finest musicians and is
endowed with one of the keenest intellects I have ever known.”

What my students (and others) have to say . . .

“Michael, your emails are so clear, and your generosity in
shar-ing your knowledge really strikes me. I guess that this
generosity comes from your love of all good music, which I share.

“There is no teacher here with your qualifications for approach-ing
harmony the way you have done in our emails. I would con-sider it a
privilege if you were to accept me as a student.”

Gustave M.

jazz pianist and classical composer,
Lausanne, Switzerland

. . . Two years later:

To: justjazz@yahoogroups.com

“I have been following justjazz discussions for a good number of
years. Yes, there are many ex-cellent books and CD's at
Aeber-sold's shop. The Berklee on-line courses are also helpful because
they imply some feed-back, and lively communications with fellow students
and an instructor.

“However the best experience I have had thus far in studying harmony is
through an e-mail personalized course with one of the members of this group
-- Michael Leibson, who can be found at
thinkingmusic.ca”

Gustave M.Lausanne, Switzerland

“I've been studying with Michael Leibson for five years now and he’s taken
me from almost zero musical education to being well ahead of the game in
first year theory in a world-renowned jazz degree program. The things he has
shown me have not only served as a theoretical basis but have also directed
my understanding in all musical avenues and have inspired much creative
thought.

“Having gone through several music teachers now, I find that Michael's
approach is definitely the best. Before you start anything, he finds out
exactly what it is that you know, what you don't know and what you want to
know. The lessons are very detailed and you constantly get a sense that, in
Michael, you are dealing with a tremendous wealth of musical knowledge,
along with a lifetime of experience that keeps it alive and real. I never
cease to be impressed with him.

“Michael and I have weekly lessons, which are conducted over the phone —
we both set up with a phone at our instruments and computers. Everybody asks
how such an arrangement could possibly work out, but it does! In fact, in
some ways it’s better than being in the same place physically: there are no
distractions, we get a tremendous amount of work done, and I have complete
access to everything I need.

“I highly recommend him to ANYBODY who wants to know ANYTHING about
music.”

Martyjazz student, Toronto, Canada

“As owner and President of
Victory Drive Music Inc., I've been scoring and producing music
for film and television for over a decade, and have produced and arranged
for many Canadian artists, including The Tea Party,
Richard Underhill, Kim Stock-wood, Jaymz Bee,
Big Rude Jake, and many others.

“I first met Michael Leibson in the 1990's, when I studied music theory
and composition with him. He was a great teacher — not only really
knowledgeable about class-ical composition, but very hip about all kinds
of music. He un-derstood and appreciated where I was coming from (and
where I wanted to go), and was able to present detailed compositional
concepts and procedures in a clear way, in a context that was very
meaningful to me, and relevant to the styles of music in which I was
interested. He was very person-able, articulate and helpful.

“I've stayed in touch with Michael, over the years, and I've yet to find
anything in music that he either doesn't already know, or can't quickly
grasp on a deep and detailed level. No matter what the style of music,
Michael's musical knowledge and insight is very deep, and his analyses are
rock solid.”

Jono Grant

President, Victory Drive Music Inc.,
Toronto, Canada

“Michael, your descriptive and musical analysis of Jobim’s Wave
is one of the best introductions to Jobim’s “Music Magic”, in both the
Geometry. . . AND . . . the Spirit. . .that I have read. Thanks!”

Craigjazz musician, Texas, U.S.A.

“I revived my interest in writing music late in life, and was fortunate
to find Michael Leibson and study with him for about five years. Michael has
an encyclo-pedic knowledge of musical composition and a sympathy for the
needs of his students. The foundation he gave me enabled me to develop
musically – I now arrange for a choral group and am writing a chamber
opera.”

Peter Morgancomposer, Canada

“Whenever I need a truly in-formed and insightful musical mind with
whom to discuss aes-thetic or technical matters, I get in touch with
Michael Leibson.”

Menon Dwarka

Director, School of Music,
Harlem School of the Arts, New York, U.S.A.